Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Events

The recent upheavals in the Middle East are challenging long-held assumptions about the dynamics between the United States, the Arab world, and Israel. In Pathways to Peace, today's leading experts explain these changes in the region and their positive implications for the prospect of a sustained peace between Israel and the Arab World.

The event featured Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union Commission Chairperson, as she discussed her leadership plans and goals for the African Union and its member states. Dr. Dlamini Zuma, former South African Foreign Minister and anti-apartheid activist, is the newly elected African Union Commission chairperson and is the first woman to ever fill this position.

As 21st century statecraft demands that nation's engage one another in all layers of economic, cultural, and political diplomacy—it is also increasingly clear that such engagement must occur not just on the national level, but just on the regional front as well. This "subnational" approach empowers nation states to create new partnerships and inroads with local leaders and institutions in advancing a litany policies, but it also empowers regional leaders to forge ahead and on key efforts and collaborate with key leaders, across nations, on a level never before seen. Such a model for engagement is being molded and shaped at the State Department as the next generation for U.S. and Russian diplomacy, and Special Representative Reta Jo Lewis will not only outline how connecting local markets and communities is a strong pathway forward for U.S.-Russian engagement, but will also draw on how such efforts between nations have played out in recent memory—connecting the dots for the next chapters of 21st century diplomacy.

Robert S. Norris, senior fellow for nuclear policy at the Federation of American Scientists will lead a Wilson Center panel discussion on "Cuban Missile Crisis: The Nuclear Order of Battle." Joining him will be defense analyst and nuclear historian David A. Rosenberg. The event will take place during the 50th anniversary of the 13 day crisis.

The Cold War International History Project in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Historian presents a panel discussion, Foreign Relations of the United States and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Vasiliki Neofotistos discusses her recently released book, "The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia," focusing on the ways middle- and working-class Albanian and Macedonian noncombatants in Macedonia's capital city, Skopje, responded to disruptive and threatening changes in social structure during the 2001 armed conflict.

With its remarkable declassified documentation and oral testimony that bear directly on questions of U.S. policymaking with regard to the Iran-Iraq War, "Becoming Enemies" reveals much that was previously unknown about U.S. policy before, during, and after the war. The authors go beyond mere reportage to offer lessons regarding fundamental foreign policy challenges to the U.S. that transcend time and place.

Spotlight on Central Eurasia Series // Ethnic Uzbeks in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan) attempted to create a place for themselves in the Kyrgyz-dominated nation-state since its independence in 1991. For a while, there were reasons to be optimistic about this minority community. Even though they felt ethnic discrimination, local Uzbek leaders labored through the 1990s and 2000s to build institutions that serve the Uzbek communities within the framework of their Kyrgyzstani citizenship. That model of ethnic community-building now lies in tatters after the massive conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010. What now for Uzbeks in the Kyrgyz Republic? As part of the Kennan Institute's Spotlight on Central Eurasia Speaker Series, Morgan Y. Liu will evaluate their prospects in light of sixteen years of detailed ethnographic work among Osh Uzbeks.